d carriages,
baggage, &c, belonging to Napoleon himself. The retreat, in a word, was
most disastrous; the French did not cease flying until they had passed
all their frontier fortresses; and then they dispersed all over the
country, selling their arms and their horses, and running to their
homes. In the battle and in the retreat the French had lost thirty
thousand men in killed and wounded; and, what was more fatal to them, by
this event their spirits were broken, and they could not again take the
field. The loss on the part of the allies was also immense; the British
and the Hanoverians alone having 2,432 killed, and 9,528 wounded, in
which number there were more than six hundred officers. Among the slain
were Generals Picton, Sir William Ponsonby, Lieutenant-colonel the
Honourable Sir Alexander Gordon, and Colonel de Lancy, Wellington's
quarter-master general. Among the wounded, the Earl of Uxbridge,
General Cooke, General Halkett, General Barnes, General Baron Allen,
Lieutenant-colonel Lord Fitzroy Somerset, and the Prince of Orange. Of
Wellington's staff, indeed, there was scarcely an officer who did not
receive a wound. Such was the battle of Waterloo: the victory was
gained at a great price; but by it this long and terrible war, which had
desolated hearths and firesides and the fair face of nature for many a
long year, was finished. So fearful was the scene after the battle that
the Duke of Wellington, forgetting the exultation of victory, exclaimed,
as he viewed it in the bright moonlight night which succeeded, "My heart
is almost broken by the terrible loss I have sustained of my old friends
and companions, and my poor soldiers." Such a sentiment does honour to
humanity.

[Illustration: 360.jpg BATTLE OF WATERLOO]

CAPTURE OF PARIS.--SURRENDER OF NAPOLEON, ETC.

The first man that carried the news of the disaster to Paris was
Napoleon himself. Leaving his brother Jerome on the frontier to try if
he could rally some of the remains of his army, he flew to the capital,
where he arrived on the night of the 20th. It is evident that he still
calculated upon the devotion of the _corps legislatif_ to his cause; but
he soon discovered that he had forfeited their affection. Had he been
victorious they would, doubtless, still have fawned upon him; but now
he was thoroughly beaten, they demanded his abdication. Both chambers
declared that there was but one man between France and peace; and
Napoleon found himself co